Austin Mini History

Designed by Alec Issigonis for BMC and launched in 1959, the Mini packed a transverse engine driving the front wheels into a tiny footprint, freeing about 80% of the floorpan for people and luggage — a layout that nearly every small car has copied since. At launch it wore two badges: the 'Austin Seven' (later 'Austin Mini') and the 'Morris Mini-Minor'.

'Mini' became a marque in its own right in 1969, dropping the separate Austin and Morris names, but its first decade was very much an Austin car. The original Mini stayed in production all the way to 2000 and was voted the second-most influential car of the 20th century, behind only the Ford Model T.

Its performance halo came from the Mini Cooper, developed with racing constructor John Cooper. The Cooper and hotter Cooper S turned the humble Mini into a giant-killer, winning the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964, 1965 and 1967.